The story of a Belgian father on his journey to Financial Independence

Big Fun – Utrecht meetup

In Utrecht, we had our third BENL meetup. Team CF and I were very pleased to see familiar faces and a lot of new faces. The program was fun and there were plenty opportunities to talk to people. That is what a community is about!

After a meet and greet, it was time for a lunch. The weather was excellent and we could eat outside. Some food, drinks and like minded people… holiday!

The more formal part of the meetup is a series of presentations and a group discussion.

One of the conclusion of the talk: the EU system is more geared towards a reactive attitude on pension and health care. We, Europeans, rely on the government to take care for us. As a result, we have higher taxes and keep less money in our pocket after tax. We also lack pre-tax pension systems so that we can accumulate.

As we feel that the system puts too many constraints on us, why not use the system to our advantage. What if you work a few months per year, hardly earning more than the tax free income in your country? When you do the math, you will need to work longer. As advantages you get

contributions to the system and further buildup of pension rights and alike

By earning money, you actually need less of a nest egg (stash) to reach this point. Put in another way, you exchange 3-5 years of full time working and saving at the highest tax rate with 10-15 years of less than halftime working at a tax free rate.

You get to enjoy life way sooner.

The challenge is to find an employer or job that allows this. And a change in tax regime/unemployment rules can hurt you as well. (That is the case everywhere for everything actually)

He gave us a concrete example on how he and his wife screen potential rental properties. What are the elements to look at: investments, costs,… He gave us a concrete example of a unit he looked at recently

In the follow up discussion, it became clear that you need to love the investment vehicle you pick. You should study many of them and figure out the one that is a fit with your time, temperament and talent. In what you invest is less important than the fact that you invest

During the day, There were many interesting side discussion. A few that I was part of

13 thoughts on “Big Fun – Utrecht meetup”

“Is now a good time to start investing. Sadly, all our crystal balls were broken, so no answer on that one!” haha, that one is awesome! Missed that discussion.
Thanks for the elaborate summary. It was a great day, wasn’t it? Looking forward to the next one already 🙂

I had been thinking about the topics of Financial Freedom Sloth. If we would go down that road (and for me that would mean work 1/2 days a week for the full year or work remotely), I could get to FI way sooner. Liked the numbers of possibilities that are out there. Even though it might be harder to build up wealth. It is still possible to reach semi-FI rather quick.

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Disclaimer

I am not a certified financial advisor and do not hold a license from the FSMA. Everything written on this blog expresses my own personal journey and opinion. This blog is pure entertainment. It is never an advice on what how and where you need to invest. If you need this advice, then please reach out to a financial service expert.